If you don't want to help other people with their problems, you don't have to!

Ah but that is my not my objection. My objection is that people pay to use a site but instead of using it they come here and post their questions many of which could have been quickly answered by reading the help pages on Ancestry. Indeed I have actually posted that before so its not a new thought.

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I feel quite the opposite to you David. It isn't always easy to find the information we want, and not always easy to understand. I have been helped many times by posting on this and other genealogical forums (and also computer forums), for which I am very thankful. We all have different abilities and interests, and we can all generally help someone else and be helped by someone else.

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I am the original poster back in January! I do apologize - I had a baby in the interim and am only just getting back to this! I'm only finding these replies now -I must have turned off email alerts many years ago and had forgotten all about this!

Many thanks for all your efforts in giving me advice...I need to take time to read them all.

What does autosumal mean? I am wanting to find a clue as the country where my great grandfather was from. That is my aim. I have hunches...I could be totally wrong and there could be no foreign blood at all on that line!

I have hunches since posting this original post that he couldve been Eastern Europen/Russian or Japanese...does that influence anyones opinions about which company to go with?

Jaybelnz, when I started studying DNA this year, in preparation for having my DNA analysed, I found the best way to start was to find articles on the internet explaining DNA to young children. They have lots of simple to follow descriptions, and even some cheery jolly pictures. I found it a very good start, preparing me for the more advanced technical articles that I am now reading. I also strongly recommend the Bettinger book.

However, I agree with Martin that a child-like approach is very helpful for us newbies.

DNA testing for genealogy purposes is still a fairly recent thing made possible by the rapid fall in the time needed to analyse a sample and the associated costs. Most of the results against which you can compare yours are for residents of the United States, UK plus those former colonies to where there was systematic migration. There are samples submitted in Eastern Europe but these are comparatively few and far between. The odds of finding a match from someone still living there are remote. However, you might find another descendent of a branch that also migrated westwards. My offspring are half-Polish and they have lots of matches with this half of the family but these are mostly in Western Europe and the US.

One of the frustrating aspects of autosomal DNA is that if only works back about six generations. After that, the "slicing and dicing" of reproduction renders any matches almost meaningless. Also, testing only finds about two thirds of the matches in any given batch of samples.

Nevertheless you will have lots of autosomal matches and somewhere in that crowd. I have found the test hugely beneficial and have found and met a whole batch of 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins, all previously unknown to each other.

Stay calm and keep digging.Malcolm

Thomas, Davies, Jones, Walters, Daniel in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. That should narrow it down a bit!Vincent: Fressingfield, Suffolk, Stockton & Sunderland.Murtha/Murtaugh: Dundalk & SunderlandIngram: Cairnie by Huntly, Scotland then AbergavennyBardouleau: London - in memory of my stepmother Annie Rose née Bardouleau who put up with a lot from me.gedmatch.com A006809Kit uploaded to familytreedna.com B171041Y-DNA R-M269 & mtDNA U5b1f

My aim initially was to see the ethnicity results which I thought might give me an idea whether there was any non British blood in the elusive great grandad of my illegitemate grandad (I know the entire rest of my tree back to 1700s is entirely from England and Ireland - this has been double/triple checked and is very solidly researched over many many years by myself in the past so any deviation to other countries would indicate that this individual was from elsehwere). I was hoping somehow that they might point towards an area of Europe or possibly elsewhere?? But given your responses, that seems unlikely because I live in north west Europe. Is that correct?

Nevertheless, because the individual I am trying to find out about is relatively close to me and was a direct ancestor, I would think that any indication ethnicity wise to any area of the world would be quite strong - yes?

I also initially had the idea to test mum which would then negate her results in me and make any stand out which were passed down through my dad. Thanks for corroborating this.

I still very much am unclear though as to which test to do because I do not know which database is best for Europe...and indeed, my ancestor may have originated outside of Europe anyway!

The man I am looking for is only 4 generations back from me. Whoever he was I suppose I am hoping he had some children somewhere else or that perhaps his siblings would have had some children? But the matches could come from further back too...Somebody mentioned 6pcm or 15pcm...or something similar? What does this mean?

I am edging away from Ancestry because to be honest I do not want to get bogged down in trillions of American results!

So I take it, when you get your results, the ethnicity is in the form of a map and 'hits' or something similar? And then you upload your results and that's when you find possible cousin matches?

I finally was able to match up my missing great grandfather by following a small group of close matches who were traced back to his brothers. This group didn't match with any others apart from my great nephew. They were in the range of 125 - 53 cMs and corresponded to 3rd and 3rd 1R to me. It took a while as, initially, I only had a response from one of them. I worked through their trees and noticed that the locations/ times corresponded to what I knew. I then found that the illustrious gg had the same first names and occupation that I'd been looking for.

Note - I tested with Ancestry and all but 2 of the matches were in the USA as one of the descendants had moved there. I have uploaded my Ancestry file to My Heritage, FTDNA and Gedmatch but, so far, no others in this particular group have shown up.

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